Welcome to The Senate Site

By Curt Bramble
Utah Senate Majority Leader

The good news is that no one took their little red wagon and went home. The chokepoint to progress on the budget has been the exact size and nature of this year’s tax cut. An obvious route that appeals to both halves of the legislature has been elusive.

But the clock is ticking. We circled our wagons in a conference room, and then in caucus, and finally agreed to reserve $220 Million for tax cuts. We can now move forward with committee priorities, and prepare a state budget down to the amount we’ve taken off the table.

Right now, there is no agreement on the tax cut package that will make up the $220 Million. However, we do have some areas of commonality between both Houses:

1. We both like reducing the Flat Tax down to about five percent. Some call this the Huntsman Tax, because they can’t quite say the words Flat Tax in reference to this system.

2. We both seem to be willing to drop the top rate on Utah’s traditional income tax system from 6.98 to 6.9 percent.

3. Both majority caucuses seem to like the idea of reducing the General Sales Tax rate of the State of Utah. (Dropping the current 4.75 percent to, say, 4.7 percent).

Baby steps. Then, once in a while, a wagon ride forward.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Twitter Updates

Follow us on the Senate Twitter Site